TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest telecom operator in Japan, on 1 April launched its third-generation (3G) service based on cdma2000 1x technology, entering the highly competitive Japanese high-speed data market.In Japan, NTT DoCoMo, the country’s leading operator, launched its 3G service under the brand name of...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Safaricom, the joint venture between Telkom Kenya and Vodafone Group, has reported that the operator's subscriber base has grown from 15,000 to 440,000 since re-launch in 2000.A spokesman for the network operator said the company would like to thank subscribers for their...
GENEVA—General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) roaming exchanges (GRX) are rapidly emerging as a profitable new service niche in Europe and around the world, as mobile operators get serious about GPRS and struggle to come to grips with the complex roaming and billing issues surrounding...
TOKYO—J-Phone, a Vodafone Group mobile carrier in Japan, became the country's second-largest mobile service, exceeding au, a mobile service provided by KDDI, according to statistics released by Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA),an industry association in Japan.TCA releases the number of mobile service subscribers by carrier...
HELSINKI, Finland—Norwegian telecom operator Telenor's competitors in Scandinavia are puzzled by the Oslo-based operator's decision to price at the high end for multimedia messaging services (MMS). Telenor intends to charge MMS users a price of US$1.40 to send images and pictures via their cell...
Nearly six months after United Kingdom-based Virgin Group and Sprint PCS announced they formed Virgin Mobile USA, the U.S. wireless industry continues to wait for the launch of the highly touted mobile virtual network operator venture.But, since the announcement last October, there has been...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South African mobile network operator Vodacom confirmed that the company has as yet not accepted the offer of a mobile license in Zambia. The operator was offered a license for the fourth mobile network in Zambia in the later half of 2001....
TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, launched third-generation (3G) service based on cdma2000 1x on 1 April. NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, which launched its 3G service called FOMA in October 2001 expanded its service area to all major cities...
LONDON—Vodafone Group plc acquired an additional 2.2-percent stake in Spanish wireless partner Airtel Movil S.A. following the exercise of a put option held by Torreal S.A. The purchase increases Vodafone's interest in Airtel to 93.8 percent.Vodafone purchased controlling stakes in Airtel last year.
BOSTON, United States—South Africa's biggest cell-phone operator Vodacom may soon enter the Zambian cellular market by operating the fourth cellular network in the country. Official authorization has been granted for the license, but the final decision rests on the approval of shareholders.Vodacom is 50...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having sold two third-generation (3G) licenses for 619 million euros (US$538.8 million) each last year, the French government looks unlikely to attract more than one interested party for the two additional licenses it plans to sell by the end of September 2002....
DUBLIN, Ireland—Ireland's Office of the Director of Telecom Regulations received bids from three wireless operators for its four third-generation mobile licenses up for sale, including one "A" license covering 80 percent of the country's population and potentially extra spectrum to carry mobile virtual network...
LONDON—Hoping to counter competition from Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s i-mode service, U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc is planning to roll out a more graphically enhanced version of its Vizzavi Web portal in Europe, according to Reuters.Vodafone's current Vizzavi site, which it jointly owns with...
BUCHAREST, Romania—Nortel Networks said it signed a contract with Connex to deploy packetized voice and data networks using Nortel's softswitches and multiservice switches."Connex will become the first service provider to leverage G729, an internationally accepted voice compression standard in a wireless network," said Nortel...
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Vodafone New Zealand recently announced the purchase of management rights for 5 megahertz of third-generation (3G) spectrum from TelstraClear.TelstraClear, the new name after a merger between TelstraSaturn, a subsidiary of Australia's Telstra and Clear Communications in December 2001, completed the deal with Vodafone...
TOKYO—J-Phone, Vodafone Group's carrier in Japan, announced that the number of users of J-Phone's popular mobile photo service exceeded 4 million. J-Phone launched the service with handsets that include built-in cameras called "Shamail"—"sha" means "take a picture" in Japanese—in November 2000. Sharp, a leading...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having heard that T-Mobile plans to launch third-generation (3G) services in 20 German cities during the third quarter, Vodafone D2 responded this week by announcing plans for a 3G service later this year in a number of large German cities. However, Viag...
TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest operator in Japan, will launch its third-generation (3G) service based on cdma2000 on 1 April, the carrier announced.In Japan, NTT DoCoMo launched FOMA 3G services in October 2001, and J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company, is planning to launch its 3G service...
LONDON—Vodafone Group subsidiary Vodafone Global Products and Services signed an agreement with Siemens to supply a global location enabling server platform allowing Vodafone and third parties to create location-enabled applications.Vodafone said the service will support customers when roaming and allow them to control the...
BOSTON, United States—The state fixed-line operator Telecom Egypt has invited bids to build Egypt's third cellular GSM network on the 1800 MHz frequency band. The closing date for proposals has been set for 25 March.Private companies currently operating cellular networks in Egypt include the...
TOKYO—NTT East, a regional operator of NTT Group, said it will launch an 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) wireless local area network (LAN) service in March or April at the earliest. Using the 2.4 GHz band, NTT East will provide the high-speed service for...
Global interest in the U.S. cellular market is high. And with consolidation expected in the United States and around the world in coming months, U.S. carriers that are owned by foreign companies could be impacted by their partners’ interests and strategies around the globe.The...
